Photo Flash: First Look at Brian McEleney as Trinity Rep's KING LEAR

Trinity Rep opens its 49th season this month with Shakespeare's sweeping tragedy King Lear, a co-production with The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) and directed by DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty. When the aging King Lear decides to divide his power between his three daughters, the results are devastating to the family - and the country. Driven by flattery, foolishness, ambition and greed, each generation soon betrays another and even nature itself revolts. King Lear runs through October 21 in Trinity Rep's intimate Dowling Theater. In January 2013, the production will travel to Dallas as part of DTC's 12-13 Season.

Get a first look at Brian McEleney as King Lear and the rest of the cast onstage in the photos below!

Trinity Rep resident Acting Company favorite McEleney stars as the aging monarch who has decided to split his kingdom among his three daughters-Goneril (DTC resident actor Christie Vela), Regan (Angela Brazil), and Cordelia (DTC's Abbey Siegworth) -with the largest share going to the daughter who loves him best. The eldest daughters shower him with flattery, while
Cordelia can only speak plainly of her love. Lear flies into a rage and gives everything to the eldest sisters. Once in power, they quickly desert their father and violently turn on each other in their quest for power.

Director Kevin Moriarty is best remembered by local audiences for his inspired take on many of
Shakespeare's plays at Trinity Rep, among them The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Henriad's
Richard II and Richard III – the latter two starring Brian McEleney in the title roles.

The sixteen-member cast also features Trinity Rep resident Acting Company members Stephen
Berenson (Fool), Phyllis Kay (Gloucester), Fr Ed Sullivan, Jr. (Oswald) and Joe Wilson, Jr. (Albany) alongside DTC resident actors Hassan El-Amin (Kent), Chamblee Ferguson (Cornwall), Lee Trull (Edmund) and Steven Michael Walters (Edgar). Rounding out the cast are Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program '13 actors Alston Brown, Grant Chapman, Drew Ledbetter, and Brandon J. Vukovic.

To create the vivid, modern - and often rain-soaked - world of Lear's England, director Moriarty
has tapped set designer Michael McGarty, Trinity Rep resident designer William Lane, lighting designer Seth Reiser, and sound designers and composers Broken Chord Collective. Set designer Michael McGarty has created a dramatic and flexible stage space where the walls move, shift and even collapse – all within the confines of the 280-seat Dowling Theater.

As Dallas Theater Center's sixth artistic director, Kevin has made a name for himself wit the
theater's productions of Next Fall, The Tempest, The Wiz, Henry IV, It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, Fat Pig, A Midsummer Night's Dream, In the Beginning, and The Who's Tommy. Before joining DTC, Kevin was Head of Directing for the Brown/Trinity MFA Program and artistic director at NY's Hangar Theatre. Kevin has also directed off-Broadway and at regional theaters, including the Lamb's Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage Company, Queens Theatre in the Park, the Flea Theatre, HERE, Theatreworks/USA, and the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Sebastian Bach and Carl Anderson.

The First Friday preview tonight, September 14 at 7:30pm will continue the theater's Pay
What You Can (PWYC) tradition, with tickets on sale at 6:30 pm that evening, limit one per
person. Talkbacks will be held after every performance of King Lear. Audiences are invited to share their response to the play's production and themes for approximately twenty minutes.

For tickets, performance schedule and more about King Lear, visit www.trinityrep.com.

Photo Credit: Mark Turek

Trinity Rep resident Acting Company members Stephen Berenson as The Fool and Brian McEleney as the aging monarch KIng Lear are caught in the rain during the storm scene.